The Vive Pre dev kit looks much more like a consumer product than early prototypes from last year.

The newly designed controller replaces a jagged pyramid of infrared lights with a smooth tracking ring that sits above the hand.

The two lighthouse sensors that sit in the corners of the room look a bit like Bluetooth speakers.

The new headsets are said to be more compact than the earlier prototypes, with a brighter screen.

You still look pretty goofy wearing it, though.

With all the recent excitement about upcoming virtual reality headsets, many observers have still worried about a pretty basic problem: the inability to see the world around you when your eyes are encased in a vision-blocking headset. A new prototype of the SteamVR-powered HTC Vive being shown at CES this week aims to solve that problem with a forward-facing camera that can integrate views of your surroundings with virtual reality scenes.

The HTC Vive Pre, the second dev kit offered by the company, will be used by many developers working on software before the planned rollout of the consumer version in April (after a recent delay from "2015"). While the Pre isn't representative of final hardware, it seems much closer to a complete consumer device than the rough prototypes we first saw last March, which featured lots of exposed wiring and clunky design touches.

The biggest new feature on the Pre is the front-facing camera, the main purpose of which seems to be the ability to orient yourself in the real world without having to briefly lift up the headset to have a look around. A hands-on look from The Verge describes how the external real-world view turns on automatically when you reach the edge of the system's tracking volume, offering a faint black-and-teal view of your surroundings that lets you see objects and patterns like walls. You can replace the VR world with a full view of your surroundings in "chaperone mode."

The camera will also allow augmented-reality style blending of the virtual and real worlds in games and apps, though developers don't seem to have any examples of that feature up and running just yet. "Being able to take a seat, find your drink, and carry on conversations without removing your headset is only the beginning of what’s possible," HTC said in a statement.

Further Reading

Oculus has also made a number of computer vision acquisitions that suggest it might be interested in similar "inside-out" cameras for tracking and real-world views in future headsets. Samsung and Oculus' Gear VR headset can use the front-facing camera in the Galaxy smartphones to view your surroundings, but this feature requires hopping out of the game world and into a system menu.

HTC is advertising a few other refinements for the new Vive Pre dev kit. The jagged pyramid of IR lights atop the original Vive dev kit controllers has been replaced with a smooth tracking ring that sits like a halo above the hand. A new dual-stage trigger allows for "smoother" interactions with objects, according to HTC, while haptic feedback should give players some idea of how virtual objects feel in their real hands.

Further Reading

The new controller also has "updated ergonomics and softer edges, greater balance, new textured buttons... grip pads for a more comfortable feel in the hand," and rechargeable lithium batteries that can last for four hours on a single charge, HTC says.

As for the headset itself, HTC says it's now more compact, with a brighter display and "image refinements [that provide] increased clarity." A system of interchangeable foam inserts and nose gaskets will help the unit be comfortable on any face, even for users with glasses, HTC claims.

We've been extremely impressed with the room-scale VR experience provided by the HTC Vive every time we've been able to try it. These refinements sound like a strong step from the existing "tech demo" phase to an actual consumer product. We just hope the current April street date target doesn't fall into the usual "Valve time" trap of endless delays and promises that it will be "ready when it's ready."

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Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

Seeing the differences between this and the Rift is just one of the reasons I'm not jumping on first gen consumer VR. I really want to see full critical and consumer reviews of the devices, what kind of software support we can truly expect, as well as fully understanding that first gen consumer products always have bugs to be ironed out no matter how much testing was done prior to release.

I also expect we'll start seeing demo product show up at stores to test out (I've only ever had a chance to play with a Rift DK2 - never touched a Vive). Then there's the fact that 2016 is when we're really likely to see the single video cards capable of driving 4K resolutions at the required consistent framerate (with all graphical options maxed out) to make VR work without causing undue duress on the end-user. Likelihood is that won't be till mid to late 2016 though if the recent brief releases about AMD's Polaris and nVidia's Pascal end up true. So 2017 seems, for me anyhow, a better time to really start considering VR.

The details are vague, but it sounds like they've added a single camera to the front of the unit. Going to the trouble of doing that without adding stereo cameras to enable depth sensing and leap motion like gesture control is, IMO, a huge missed opportunity.

The details are vague, but it sounds like they've added a single camera to the front of the unit. Going to the trouble of doing that without adding stereo cameras to enable depth sensing and leap motion like gesture control is, IMO, a huge missed opportunity.

That was my thought as well. A while back there was some experimental support for Oculus added to Leap Motion and I played around with it a bit. It was about as professional as it looked (Leap Motion strapped to the front of my DK2) but I could definitely see the promise. Depth-sensing IR-sensitive cameras let me see my hands in front of me or even get a rudimentary night-vision thing going (with the IR cameras just feeding the Rift with a grainy black and white feed of the pitch-black room).

I love watching this stuff and I love playing with the early dev units and experimental features but I hope people are aware of the limits of gen-one consumer products. This stuff will be hashed out and improved rapidly like any new consumer tech but people going in expecting "iPhone" performance are gonna find themselves in a "Treo" world--still impressive and finally usable with several great features that weren't available in the past, but you'll always wish it was a bit faster, hassle-free, and more comfortable to use.

On the plus side, these early steps are necessary in order to hit relative maturity in 5-10 years.

This seems much more impressive than Rift at this point, but I have a feeling that the serious gamer is expecting to be sitting for long play sessions and the Rift is looking fine for that. Sony has the console angle. Microsoft has the practical for more things than games angle. It's pretty healthy competition with solid products from what I can see. Most big technology launches aren't so healthy and mature in my experience.

I've wanted VR since the early 90s when I saw those vector-based graphics NASA goggles, but I've been skeptical of its success ever since I saw how far behind we were from where my imagination immediately took it. I think we are finally getting close. Give it two years and I think this really could go mainstream.

I predict never. I think when the first true product versions of so-called "VR" systems debut the enthusiasm and the market will quickly fade. Some of the systems we've been hearing about will probably never launch.

I keep telling myself I'll wait for the 2nd wave of more refined VR devices in 2017/2018, but not sure I'll be able to restrain myself IF there's a few kickass system seller games/experiences. Add in TSMC finally enabling AMD and Nvidia to get a die shrink for some faster gpus later this year, and 2016 is sizing up to be an excellent confluence of product releases.

To those that want a "Kinect" like experience for the forward facing cameras... How about we let them get the basic concept of Virtual Reality to market first? Then it's time for refinement. If you don't like that, don't be an early adopter (like every other tech product).

I keep telling myself I'll wait for the 2nd wave of more refined VR devices in 2017/2018, but not sure I'll be able to restrain myself IF there's a few kickass system seller games/experiences. Add in TSMC finally enabling AMD and Nvidia to get a die shrink for some faster gpus later this year, and 2016 is sizing up to be an excellent confluence of product releases.

Have you seen the Eve Valkyrie Trailer on YouTube?! https://youtu.be/3SI1CB4rcf8I've been wanting since Wing Commander came out (1990) for this experience!! They'll have my money the day it comes out!

I keep telling myself I'll wait for the 2nd wave of more refined VR devices in 2017/2018, but not sure I'll be able to restrain myself IF there's a few kickass system seller games/experiences. Add in TSMC finally enabling AMD and Nvidia to get a die shrink for some faster gpus later this year, and 2016 is sizing up to be an excellent confluence of product releases.

Have you seen the Eve Valkyrie Trailer on YouTube?! https://youtu.be/3SI1CB4rcf8I've been wanting since Wing Commander came out (1990) for this experience!! They'll have my money the day it comes out!

Yowsers, I got chills just in the launch bay, thinking about playing that in VR.

I keep telling myself I'll wait for the 2nd wave of more refined VR devices in 2017/2018, but not sure I'll be able to restrain myself IF there's a few kickass system seller games/experiences. Add in TSMC finally enabling AMD and Nvidia to get a die shrink for some faster gpus later this year, and 2016 is sizing up to be an excellent confluence of product releases.

Have you seen the Eve Valkyrie Trailer on YouTube?! https://youtu.be/3SI1CB4rcf8I've been wanting since Wing Commander came out (1990) for this experience!! They'll have my money the day it comes out!

Yowsers, I got chills just in the launch bay, thinking about playing that in VR.